Gueilla filmmaking coming to a bustop near you!

.... aaaaah. this post has dissapeared... but you may have returned after reading it before... all is hush hush... the filmmaking has gone underground...and when it resurfaces, who knows what form it will take?

Miri
from mystery film projects
brought to you by Lunar Wolf Productions...

Having just mentioned WITHOUT-A-BOX in my last post...

here is an awesome article by filmmaker magazine about the guys that set it up, where they are going and what they stand for...

Go David Straus and Joe Neulight! Two film school graduates from UCLA & they launched without-a-box in 2000. Some extracts I likes from that article called

HITTING SEND: Withoutabox prepares for the big time BY LAURA DAVIES

follow below:

While at film school we [Straus and Neulight] made a number of films together, and through that process I saw that anything was possible in terms of making one’s art. But we knew there had to be a way to empower filmmakers so that they could attain their goals without ever having to “ask for permission,” and that’s where Withoutabox comes in. For me, Withoutabox is all about choosing to make something happen, because as an independent filmmaker you have the power to make it happen.

What is The International Film Festival Submission Service?

Straus: It is a product that connects filmmakers from around the world with festivals from around the world. Filmmakers can put all the information about their film — their marketing materials, press kits, trailer and anything else they would need to submit — into the system. They can then search our database of festivals and look for the festival that best matches their needs and submit that information to the festival. What one festival gets is different from what another festival gets, because [its submission] requirements are different. And festivals = manage their submission process through us as well. The filmmakers that use our product are [everyone from] Academy Award winners [to filmmakers] right out of high school. Our filmmakers make 30-second films and 2½ hour films. They use 35mm and they use digital. It’s on all extremes.

Have you abandoned the camera for the business
suit?

Straus: Just to put things in perspective, I’m sitting in my office with Birkenstocks on. If you ever tell me I can’t wear my Birkenstocks, I’ll get upset. The thrill that I get when I log in to our system at three in the morning and I see a filmmaker in India or New Zealand or the UK using our system, I’m incredibly fulfilled. I never saw myself as abandoning filmmaking; I just saw myself participating at a different level.

How do you expect a site aimed at industry professionals to compete with other services that encompass much wider general audiences when it comes to the marketing of indie films?

Joe Neulight: We are not trying to compete so much as to organize differently. Our goal is to empower our filmmakers to use whatever tools are at their disposal to get the word out on their films and to get their work out to audiences. Withoutabox is a professional bridge from more general sites like MySpace and YouTube for filmmakers who want to take the next step, monetize their work on the world marketplace and perhaps make a career of it. Filmmakers and festivals are already beginning to run Audience as a “private label” platform beneath their own Web sites, and we expect Audience will come to distinguish itself as “the source” of independent film, whether their work lives on our site or on those run by our partners and competitors.

In order to read the rest , go to:

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2006/line_items/hitting_send.php


Love & Inspiration,
Miri
Lunar Wolf Productions
www.myspace.com/lunarwolfproductions

Have you guys checked out facebook groups lately?!

Did you know...

As a creative, I have found a HUGE amount of incredibly helpful groups on facebook.

There are groups for filmmakers, actors, directors, genre groups for filmmakers and their fans, festival groups....

Some I can remember off the top of my head that I have joined and benefitted from have been:

*Actor's Centre graduates (private)
*AFTRS
*Sydney Actors
*All Actors on Facebook
*All Directors on Facebook
... and many more!

So go check out groups on facebook and get busy in your community - people post crew and casting calls, triumphs, festival call for entries, upcoming seminars for filmmakers or training in your area of the craft. It's been awesome to keep in the know and also just to meet like minded people who are out there making inspiring projects.

Break a leg and go knock yourself out *getting connected*

www.facebook.com

Other online info hubs to check out are

* SCREENHUBB
For job listings, upcoming opportunities and industry news. You can even post your projects for free...
http://screenhub.com.au/
You can even do a great trial for 3 months to see how you like it.
There are jobs & opportunities listes that are from all over AU, NZ and some international jobs also.
I've found the news breifs excellent too for keeping up to date with the industry and major influences coming up. Also some timely reminders for entry deadlines for upcoming festivals.

* ARTS HUBB
Ditto for screenhubb - though these days there is a small fee to post your own projects...
For AU
http://www.artshub.com.au/
or for US
http://www.artshub.com
or for the UK
http://www.artshub.co.uk/
The good thing about these guys is there is info across a wide range of the arts & you have the multi-national searching capabilities for jobs, auditions and projects to collaborate on.

I have also just joined without-a-box.
Which is a free online distribution hub to submit your film to festivals over the net. Cutting down on countless filling out of paper entry forms and I understand they can even send your film digitally/post you DVD for you. I haven't fully explored it yet, but it's been recommended by a number of on-to-it producers in the industry... and anything that's going to save me time getting my film out there and free up my time so I can focus on my next film, gets me excited :)

Check them out at:
http://www.withoutabox.com/

Just reading the terms and conditions was a learning spree!


Love & Inspiration!
Miri
Lunar Wolf Productions
lunarwolfproductions@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/lunarwolfproductions

More NAFA details...

Some info for you about NAFA:

NAFA [Networking Action for Filmmakers & Actors ]NAFA is a networking group of actors, screenwriters, and filmmakers renowned for being creative and productive. We strongly believe in creating our own opportunities to succeed in this tough industry. From its origins as a proactive actors’ group (then Networking Action For Actors), NAFA evolved to include like-minded screenwriters and filmmakers, creating a bigger and better beast. As a growing resource with a huge potential, many professionals and independents have sought help from NAFA when seeking cast and crew.

Since its inception, NAFA has been solidly based on the ideas of networking and education. It is best known for running the monthly Choc Tops in the Attic meetings.

On a larger scale, NAFA also organizes two big film festival—exhibitions each year: Show-Fest (April) & Action-Fest (August). Popular for their ‘Show & Tell’ format, all cast and crew are invited onstage to discuss the making of their films post-screening.

On a smaller scale, NAFA organises monthly Script Development Workshops, a Talent Night in November, and the occasional social event.Lastly — but most importantly — NAFA Productions is a film production company formed to nurture the creative energies of the group into producing great films.

Now having made over 20 short films, the company is bursting with enthusiasm to tackle new and exciting projects in 2006.

NAFA FILM PROJECTS:You can be assured of the following:
1. Great script,
2. Casting sessions to select the right actors,
3. Crew interviews to select a creative and compatible team,
4. Professional standards & safety,
5. Good catering,
6. Invitation to a cast & crew premiere,
7. All participants will receive a copy of the film,
8. The film will be finished!

Further Info Email Address:tony@nafa.net.au Further Info Name:Tony Chu Further Info Phone Number:0412 230 415 Website:http://http://www.nafa.net.au

Love & Inspiration
from Miri
Lunar Wolf Productions
www.myspace.com/lunarwolfproductions
lunarwolfproductions@gmail.com

NAFA - come one, come all!

A community of filmmakers, actors, writers, directors, crew specialists, producers, casting directors (the list goes on...)

In short, this is the place to be in SYDNEY for people who make want to make films!

What: CHOC TOPS
Who: NAFA
Where: Attic Bar, Art House Hotel, 275 Pitt St, Sydney
When: Third Monday of the month (except December, January, and public holidays)
6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Membership: $40 for a student. $60 Full Membership.
Contact: Tony Chu [Producer NAFA Productions]
0412 230 415
tony@nafa.net.au
Website: http://www.nafa.net.au/


Last monday night we had a fantastic Choc Top. The guest speaker was Rachel Lucas, the infamous guerilla filmmaker of Bondi Tsunami http://www.bonditsunami.com.au/
Rachel filled the evening with a rich chocca-full-content-discussion about the do's and don'ts of guerilla filmmaking!


She also had just gotten her new book on guerilla filmmaking hot off the press called "The rock n' Roll Guide to Guerilla Filmmaking".


Rachel really understands popular culture, she is a woman with her finger on the pulse of now and the master of bringing something old and making it new right now.


One of the keys she says to 'creating an intelligent destiny for you film before you begin' is tapping into subcultures. Taking something old, familiar and making it hot right now... She was creating digital content back before releasing or viewing a movie in the cinemas on DVD was unheard of! She was totally inspiring...


For me here's three great points that have really stuck in my head from the other night:


* Only make the ideas that are really really *Hot*.

If you are a young filmmaker just starting out (and you don't have a million
dollars to spend on shit shot marketing) Don't waste your time & money on
something that's going to die after the first 10 day release glow. Make a film
that is going to last - make a CULT CLASSIC...

* Take something old and familiar, that people already love and are into, and put it in a new context.

* Always write your own press!

Don't leave your word and mouth up to reviewers to tell you whether or not
your film is hot. You know it's hot, so write about it. But write about it smart
- write HUMAN INTEREST stories that people WANT to read about. And include great
pictures. Think about it - the editors will love you for thinking about it and
writing something that their target market will want to read. You provide them
with free content, you get to tap into subcultures that if they like what they
read, will *own* your film and tell everyone about it!

* Lastly, go DIGITAL CRAZY!

Dream up something worth going for & DISTRIBUTE it
through the NET

There is so much available to us, right now, as filmmakers, so
use the technology and free distribution that is possible to your advantage, do
something different, create digital content to be distributed on iPODs, mobiles,
portable computors & digital diaries...

********Digital Dreaming, baby, yeah!*********

For more, visit Rachel's website or read her book - it's packed full of these gems and then you can tap into the what's possible as an independent filmmaker and make great films that will lasssssste...

LOVE AND INSPIRATION!

Miri

Filmmaker

Lunar Wolf Productions

lunarwolfproductions@gmail.com

www.myspace.com/lunarwolfproductions

Digital Dreaming - it's all starts with moving pictures...

...and telling stories in the dark.

I have been an inventor of stories since I was able to string two words together! I love images, music and words all combining to form an experience, a moment which the imagination can step into.

I am starting this blog now because I am passionate about Filmmaking, forming friendship and creative relationship with people all over the world and I wanted to have a place to share anything I found useful or inspiring with others.

I am a kiwi filmmaker living in Sydney, trained at the Actor's Centre Australia in their full time acting course aptly called 'The Journey', & before that I graduated from the Victoria University of Wellington with a degree in Music, majoring in composition.... (I am totally wild about percussion and the geography of Wellington - if you like wild, four-seasons-in-one-day, living-life-on-the-edge, then check out Welly - it's a fantastic place to live and a creative pressure cooker! Esp. for innovative film and music cultures)

I was blessed to be born into an incredibly talented creative family. My mother was an artist, constantly scribbling & doodling, taking art classes and various courses. She had a love of words - poetry, Shakespeare - and we share a love of Children's Story books. Every night one of my parents would read to me from our ever expanding library of fantastic story books - ranging from popular books of the time, to the timeless likes of 'Where the Wild Things Are', A. A. Milne, The 'Just So Stories' of Rujard Kippling and Roald Dahl - 'The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me' - a total favourite! - to fantastic unheard of masterpieces we or relatives had happened upon by chance, 'Joey', 'The Stalk' & the wickidly funny anthology of 3-minute stories (especially if you actually tried to read them in 3 mintues!)...

Sometimes, dad would even sing them to me with made up melodies on the spot as he improvised on the guitar! Fantastic :)

What those precious books always had in common was fantastic illustrations, imaginitive worlds that you could practically step off the page into & words that spun their story out thin air in front of us...

The next presence of the arts I was blessed to grow up surrounded by and immersed in, was the wonderful musical world of my father. He was a classical guitarist, an avid folk-musician & a born story-teller. This man could hold a room of 20, screaming with laughter, in the telling of one joke . I have to say he was my total hero. Well, him & He-Man were neck and neck anyway! (yes I was a total, fiery, kiwi-italian tomboy)

I was really lucky because I was allowed to go along to all sort of musical concerts with him. I was always told before each one - "You can come, but only if you listen quietly for the whole thing" & you betcha, I would! Either I would be listening, drinking in the music, or I would have fallen quietly asleep beside him and mum on the concert benches or chairs.

Growing up in a hectic schedule of concerts, late night parties & home soirees - and plenty of travel - I was lucky enough to learn that critical skill of being up when you are up and being asleep whereever you can catch a kip. I think that will put me in good stead for my career in the film industry, don't you?

My dad was originally from Italy. So we used to travel back and forth to Europe and go on long trips around the world alot as a family, so having the ability to drop to sleep whenever I was tired, WHEREVER I was (including a crowded airport lounge) - was a total godsend. And now that I think of it, a survival essential, due to our lifestyle! To this day, I can fall asleep in a pumping party on the couch. In fact, hearing the noise of people laughing & talking & music going on... actually helps!!!

My parents were running an Italian Restaurant called "Da Mario's" in Palmerston North. It was the best thing, growing up in and living upstairs to a busy restaurant. Not only was my mum a killer, multi-cultural chef - so the food has always been sublime - but we often had fantastic musicians playing live and staying with us from NZ and all over the world.

One of my favourite things at that time was to creep out of bed and slink half way down the stairs to watch them in the dining room performing... It was all so magical, this world of music and performance. The rapt awe in a room full of diners that these musicians would command - some patrons would even forget to eat... In mid mouthful, they would turn in their chairs as the hush silence came over the dining room, to wath the performers play or sing... and then they would applause! Well, as four or five year old, I thought that was really something! The act of performance. The exciting exchange between audience and artist...

The last piece of the puzzle was both of my parents loved the theatre & the movies. We used to go to all sorts of local plays and performances, Shakespeare, musicals that come to town or if it was to the capital, Wellington, we would often drive to see them... One time, when I was about 10, we were on our last stopover returning from Italy, and we were staying in Sydney while the 'Phantom of the Opera' was playing. We went and I was completely blown out of the water. As a 10 year old, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know anything about the story. It's still fresh in my mind - this amazing, huge experience - 100s of people performing and singing, the stunning visual effects of the fog, the mirror, the falling candellabra! I remember, I actually screamed when it started to fall! And at the end, I had tears streaming down my face as I applauded on my feet, whopping and whistling for the performers. Stupendous!

As a filmmaker now, I think it's a strength that I was an only child who grew up for the large part, surrounded by adults, traveling the world, being exposed to different cultures, different standards of living, people who spoke in completely different languages with different customs. It helped me to see outside the box. It fed my already active imagination. I was always asking questions and making up the background story to things I saw.

I had a completely over-active imagination. I could create a make believe game to keep me occupied any time, any where. I could sit quite happily, while the adults had dinner in a Parisian Restaurant catching up with old friends, and create a whole world to explore with myslef and the reflection of me in the mirror opposite the table. I had make-believe friends, make-believe families and even make-believe worlds I would frequently visit to ellaborate on previous adventures. I would happily bring along any friends I happened to have over to play at the time, and more often that not (I know this because of telling footage from my early years taken by dad on our video camera & from friends reports since we've grown up) I would be the one in charge, dictating the rules of the game we were playing, making up compelling and complicated twists and turns, creating a dramatic series of obstacles and challenges we would have to overcome to reach our goal...

I don't think I ever really grew out of that - that ability and desire to hold the entire world in my head, because that is why now I am never more at home than when I am directing a film or a piece of theatre. As a filmmaker, one of the things I absolutely LOVE doing, is spinning this imaginary world out of thin air and getting in there with my fellow creators and fleshing it out. Poking around in its insides. Asking the tricky intriguing 'what if' questions... What would happen if this happened? What would this character do if faced with...? Yeah, and then what if that happened...

I love reading fantasy and science fiction. I love seeing movies - any movies - good, bad, cheesey, block busters, art house, political situation flicks...

I love painting a picture, a living breathing world in my head and then bringing it to life on screen and in a darkened theatre. I love seeing the adventures and worlds that others have created.

I love seeing actors and creatives transformed as they tell a story - seeing the world, the life of that story, take them over. The inspiration that dances in their eyes and they way they can't wipe the smile off their faces when a breakthrough or realisation hits them in the forehead!

When I was a child, one of my favourites things was having sleep overs and that time after we had just been tucked up in bed. The light had just been switched off. The adults were in bed or watching telly. And we would lie there, whispering jokes and telling scary stories, spinning riddles and making up puzzles for each other, whispering utter nonsense into the dark... and one by one, in the middle of some wonderful world, often in mid sentence, we would fall asleep...

In short, I love films. I love moving pictures. I love telling stories in the dark. I always have, I always will.

And whatever I learn about it, I will share with you here. Whoever you are and however you chanced upon this blog, thanks for reading. I will share with you in the coming posts the places, things, people, realisations, gems & resources that I discover which make a difference to me. I hope they assist you in your journey too, in creating the life you dream of...

Love & Inspiration,

Miri